PayPal and Visa Launch new Instant Transfer feature in Canada

A new payment solution has been introduced by PayPal and Visa with a view to easing the frustration of payment bottlenecks for small and medium-sized businesses and consumers alike

PayPal and Visa announced in a joint statement the launch of PayPal’s new Instant Transfer functionality in Canada. PayPal’s new functionality is powered by Visa Direct, which is Visa’s unique real-time push payments solution. It’s hoped the inclusion of Visa Direct would enable PayPal account holders to move funds instantly from PayPal to their bank accounts using Visa debit cards.

Canadians will now be able to move as much as CA$50,000 from PayPal accounts to bank accounts in a matter of seconds using eligible Visa debit cards; all for the cost of just 1% of the transaction figure, up to CA$10. According to the joint press release, the demand for quicker payments and money transfers is “escalating”. It states that three-fifths (60%) of consumers see real-time funds disbursements as a benefit, while 85% of small firms surveyed said they would be keen to switch to an alternate merchant acquirer that guaranteed real-time payments.

Brian Weiner, vice president and head of product at Visa Canada, said that Visa Direct was helping “millions of Canadians” by creating “more convenient ways” for consumers to handle their own money online. Mr Weiner added that Visa Canada was “pleased” to hook up with PayPal to introduce this functionality to its “mutual customers”. The Instant Transfer infrastructure has now been made widely available for PayPal customers, while those with PayPal small business accounts may also receive exclusive early-stage access. Plans are afoot to roll-out Instant Transfer to all PayPal users in Canada before the end of the year.

How does Instant Transfer work?

Connect an eligible Visa debit cardFirst things first, you’ll need to link a Visa debit card to your PayPal account, allowing you to transfer money. VisaNet is now capable of processing more than 65,000 transactions per second, so you can be sure of a Visa debit card being able to connect fast to bank accounts.

Choose the amount you wish to transferSubmit the amount of money you wish to switch from PayPal to your bank account. The maximum amount available in your PayPal account will be displayed. Press “Transfer” and wait for the process to complete.

Wait for a confirmation notificationYou’ll receive immediate confirmation of the transfer via the email address connected to your PayPal account.

With some 277 million active PayPal account holders – many of which are small businesses that receive payments and invoices via their PayPal account – Instant Transfer gives growing small firms the agility they need to manage, move and spend their money however they see fit. PayPal accounts are now designed to hold balances in up to 25 different fiat currencies, so it’s clear to see that PayPal is now a global digital payments platform.

Although PayPal is notorious for being one of the most widely used digital payment platforms today, there are still some industries that are yet to fully adopt it. In the world of iGaming, PayPal-accepted casinos are few and far between, for both deposits and withdrawals. In fact, it’s becoming simpler for iGamers to find online casinos that accept Bitcoin as a payment option as opposed to a PayPal account. That’s because PayPal is very stringent when it comes to payment security and is, quite rightly, loathed to process the transfer of funds to and from iGaming platforms that are deemed remotely suspect.

Nevertheless, PayPal’s CEO, Dan Schulman confidently predicted the global digital payments sector would become a $100 trillion marketplace earlier this year. Schulman said that the world needs to acknowledge that “we live in the space of digital commerce” and adopting peer-to-peer payments is a must.

Aside from its growing relationship in Canada, PayPal is also furiously tapping into markets in the Far East, such as Japan, India and China. It’s set aside $3 billion a year on mergers and acquisitions, with its recent takeover of Swedish fintech startup iZettle a case in point. PayPal’s burgeoning partnerships with e-commerce markets such as Alibaba and Amazon will also help to cement PayPal’s infrastructure as the market leader for digital payments worldwide.